Shattered Dusk Arc: Vision of Shadows
Assault of the Shadow Dragon Waiting atop the ridge overlooking the valley of the compound were the forces of the Toveri Alliance. Each guild has it's four-man team waiting patiently for Samarra Inari's signal to converge on the location and rescue the test subjects being used for a dark guild's experiments on creating Second Generation Dragon Slayers. Samarra was busy talking with the Ambush Unit through the communication lacrima around her neck. The Ambush Unit was there to serve as a distraction for the forces guarding the experimentation compound, so that the Alliance Units could sneak into the compound unnoticed. "Alright, Ambush Unit begin your assult. Warrior Angel Unit, converge on the compound and take out the generator powering the compounds outdoor security. All other Units stand by." ''Samarra says over the lacrima. After a few moments, lights could be seen flickering off and on, followed by a puff of smoke from what looked to be security measures at the compounds entrance. "''Samarra to Tristan. I don't what you did but the defense system is down, the power flickered when it did but its still running do you know what happened." Samarra said through the lacrima, with a quizzical look on her face. She got a quick reply from the Warrior Angel guild's leader, then sent a message to all the Alliance Units. "All Unit's converge on the compound. Proceed with caution, the map from our sources was inaccurate, so the location's layout is a mystery. Do your best to rescue as many people as you can, only use extreme force if necessary." Samarra commands. With that all guild forces rush on the large experimentation site. A single Mage enter's the compound but as he does, he's puzzled by the sheer number of rooms present. Being indecisive, he quickly puts his index finger on the his temple and then asks, "Which way?" as if he were talking to himself. Upon being told to enter the second room, the young mage proceeds to walk to the room but as he enters it, the room automatically changes its internal environment upon sensing the presence of a new "magic power" inside it. "God this is huge!" exclaims the Mage as he notices the giant, apparently abandoned "playground" but just as he thinks of exiting, he turns back to notice that the door has indeed vanished. "I need your help, he said. I cannot believe I said yes to this! Tsk, what's with people and their obsession with Dragon Slayer Magic?" said a tall, young, well dressed, red haired male Mage with heterochromic eyes as he almost complained and sighed. With a gasp of simultaneous boredom and discomfort, the young Mage proceeded to walk by the dark woods evidently searching for something. "Now, where was I supposed to meet this apparent teammate of mine? Large Map-umm, ... there! Large red maple!" he exclaimed as he continued his stroll down the dirt path, which was now further covered with the fallen August leaves. At no other time other than "this", did the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it bordered on taste, and more honey-sweet where one feels it touching the first sounds. Containing depth within itself, darkness, something of the grave almost. It wasn't a great afternoon, with noon being the derivative of temperature is the greatest due to the positioning of the sun and earth's crust itself radiating heat. The young man sat under the tree as he was shading himself from the sun's rays to prevent intense dehydration. "Why am I stuck with people who are late for occassions? Why do villains have to hide in positions like this? Tsk, Second generation slayers shouldn't be a big deal, after all, they are fake as shit!" he further added while grabbing his bottle since he was clearly thirsty or at least dehydrated slightly from walking for three hours straight. A mysterious figure appeared several yards away from the young male who was resting as it almost stalked its "prey". Placing herself perfect on the top most branch of a tree and remaining hidden by suppressing her magic, the figure appeared to be a woman with sharp incisors as she clearly planned on attacking the man on the ground. Her gothic look and dark purple hair clearly set a gloomy aura around her but before she could make her move, she was taken off her feet; though not quite literally. "Even if you suppress your magic, my nose can sense you, woman!" said the man resting under the red maple tree as he stood up and looked above; directly looking her in the eyes. "Seraph, Seraph Kinmichi and who'd you be, creepy stalker?" The young woman appeared to be surprised after hearing that she has been discovered but quickly snapped out of it as she instantly created a large scythe made of shadows in her left hand and with great strength wielded it, attempting to cut Seraph in half but unfortunately for her, her large weapon was too slow to catch up to Seraph who barely moved a few steps and easily avoided the strike. However, the attack caused two giant trees to be cut in halves, with the force of the blow behind her strike being strong enough to crush and break branches of other trees; which were in the path of her attack as they were growing in the same direction as her swing. The woman blushed as she straight jumped down and landed softly while she thought to herself, "This is new. I wonder if he can fight". She then proceded to cup her hands together as she created a small orb composed of shadows and announced, "Melanie Sullivan. Prepare yourself, here it comes--- '''Shadow Orb'! " Suddenly the orb was launched as it propelled itself towards Seraph with mesmerizing speed. Seraph despite just witnessing the mysterious girl creating a scythe out of nothingness and slice trees with a single swing as if it were nothing but he barely flinched, surprisingly he instead chose to reply to Melanie's comments. "''I am always prepared, girl." On the completion of his sentence Seraph reacted quickly performing a flawless quadruple-back flip which easily allowed him to avoid the incoming attack and show-case his agility; as he was still landing, he suddenly disappeared from Melanie's line of sight only to appear behind her, tapping her shoulder. "You should never let your guard down, miss. So are you one of those wanna be Dragon Slayers?" he questioned. Melanie turned her head only to express sheer disgust through her facial expressions as she suddenly de-materialized as she quickly transformed her body into nothing a shadow like form and while this surprised Seraph for a fraction of a second, he did not let it get the best of him and began looking for her. To his surprise, she quickly appeared above him with her feet covered in shadows and attempting to kick Seraph with all of her might. "'' Shadow Dragon's Claw! " she exclaimed, only to have her shadow enhanced kick intercepted and blocked by Seraph's right forearm. Seraph smirked as he commented, "''I sense him, he's near!" "Melanie Sullivan, seventeen year old second generation Dragon Slayer, wanted alive," echoed a voice. Saveli Kir made his appearance quite showy out of thin air, "Sorry for being late, I was called here on minutes notice by Miriam oh and you must be Seraph who was supposed to be here waiting for me." "One second dear..." Seraph said to Melanie, as he moved quickly appearing by Saveli's side within a blink of an eye. "Yeah, I am Seraph. You must be Saveli, you have a godawful smell by the way. Its not bad, it just smells like barren wastelands, smoke and loneliness; kidding, I can't smell loneliness but what's with the unfair advantage you have? Like when you know about an enemy, don't you think you should share it with---I don't know--- your TEAMMATE!" he added as he looked at Saveli. "I've had enough of this nonsense!" shouted Melanie as she thrusted her left palm towards the duo who were apparently a team while supporting her left palm with her right hand. This caused a giant creature entirely composed of shadow to appear before them. "'' Shadow Golem! "'' she added; announcing the name of her spell with pride as the golem charged towards the duo with the intention of beating them to an inch of their lives. "A man isn't noted for his smell, I unlike you live a rough life wandering around, as a Shadow Slayer, we are in the wrong to fight her here in a place full of shadows, can you please clear this place for me ?" Saveli ordered his teammate, while restraining the golem before it had a chance to deal a blow to himself or Seraph. "One thing I hate about you dragon slayers is your capability to absorb the element you are cursed with." As Saveli proceded to restrain the golem, the golem grew bigger and began rampaging as it tried to kill Saveli. "Uh, you sure you want me to do that and not help you? I am not sure if I can destroy this forest, I mean... it doesn't even exist! We are in one of those stupid environment changing rooms. Is this even real?" commented Seraph as he hurled several paper-shurikens at both the golem and Melanie. "I don't think we need to do anything about the area, its fake anyways, there! Hit there!" he said as he sent several magic paper shurikens high up at the sky and soon, to the duo's surprise actually made an impact with the sky causing it to collapse. Soon, the environment once again changed as pieces of Lacrima from the ceiling. "Bye, bye advantage! How did I tell it was up there? You know Lacrima's emit magic right? I can sense magic? Yeah, that's how and plus the goth chick looking at it wasn't really helping! Also--" before he could complete his sentence Seraph was suddenly blasted at point blank range by one of Melanie's shadow orbs. "Yeah, nice try! For your kind information, up till now, I was using only thirty percent of my real power!" exclaimed Melanie as she created more golems and they merged with her original golem to create what she refereed to as the "super golem". The Super Golem took the form of a tall humanoid creature with a large set of horns on its head and blade like outgrowth on its shoulders with claws for nails and a distinctive mouth with several solidified shards of shadow magic for teeth. The creature had gone from originally being no big than fifteen feet to being exactly seventy five feet large. Melanie jumped on top of the golem as she declared, "Time to show you fools what true power is!" as the golem attempted to crush Saveli beneath its feet while several shadow hands appeared behind Saveli attempting to incapacitate him. Suddenly seemingly out of the darkness a hand stops the massive golem's foot from crushing. Beneath the hand was a man who was wearing a jacket with a black t-shirt underneath. "Hmph Seraph please do pay attention more often I hate saving you someone who is strong" says the newcomer whose name is Mareko. "Now to deal with this golem". Mareko then with ease throws the Golem with one hand at the nearest wall. " By the Way hello the names Marekō" Marekō says bowing. However, the Golem easily gets back on its feet as it begins to feat on the giant hand made of darkness and grows even stronger than before. Saveli Kir jumped behind the other two alliance mages, quickly starting his Archive contacting Miriam Cade he spoke with the elder, "We have another Mage to fight a little girl ? What is the meaning of this ? Do we have a change of plans ? Well I knows its a Dragon Slayer and I know she is using 30% of her power or so she claims, but its not like we are using much of our abilities as well know. It was odd sending two people to do the job, now this as got even weirder. Is there something you are hiding ?"Kir sent the message hopefully to be received by the higher ups. Suddenly a blue flash entered the room, burning the ground. When the light faded, Aether Cade was standing in its place. "We got your message. Be on guard. There's another Dragon Slayer around." "Get your own opponent!" exclaimed Seraph as he appeared perfectly fine. "Now, to deal with the golem! I'll make you regret it! The increased kinetic force from my very magic circlet should be able to deliver the desirable impact required to put the Law of Mass to test! Law of mass dictates that the mass of an object dramatically increases the force of impact when said object collides with the ground! And with your size, you'll make an extensively large impact upon your inevitable defeat!" he added looking the golem in the eye while he pointed his ring towards the golem's face as he released a large volume of foam-like bubbles through the use of his ring magic, which covered the ground and reduced its friction, considerably limiting the opponent movements and causing them to fall. The bubbles are released with violent force that is capable of washing away most attacks, such as oil and fire. "The what now?" questioned Melanie as both she and the golem she was on looked confused by Seraph's sentence. "Wait--- what? Ah, We don't have time for this!," said Aether. "We need to find Kalina." The only thing on Aether's mind was helping Samarra. "Lightning Flame Dragon's Electron Cannon!" He blasted the golem with a large beam of super heated fire and lightning. The combined attack was more than enough to destroy the golem and send Melanie flying away but before she could crash against the ground, she transformed her body into shadows and disappeared from the guild member's line of sight. "Allow me to dumb it down for you guys, what I said was, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall!" ''" added Seraph. Sky Dragon's Arrival "''You people are too loud!" exclaimed a voice as suddenly several swords made of wind attempted to impale the Dragon Gunfire members. The voice made its presence clear by exerting its Magical Aura which sent tremors throughout the room. "What's with you Mel? Fighting these nitwits?" the voice asked Melanie as the number of wind blades increased. "Aaaaand, now there is entertainment" Marekō Said as a darkness barrier instantly come up to block all of the wind blades around his allies. "Sorry, I just felt that there was two nearby ds slayers here so I came plus WHO DECIDED YA'LL GET TO FACE THE SHADOW SLAYER I'm the darkness phoenix let me deal with things that are close to the Darkness by the way have I just showed up five seconds so i had no idea on the plan." Marekō then glared at the wind user, and thought to himself. I can't decide why i just hate this bird brain for some reason'. '' "Just when I thought I had issues. Ugh, dude. Calm down. Who do you wanna fight? The cute chick or this douchebag I smell? If you wanna fight him then, face the North-east direction. He is about umm, I don't know for sure but at least two hundred meters away from our current location!" replied Seraph as he using his sensing skills to guide Marekō. "Hey, Mar! You wanna switch with Mr. Kir here? I think Darkness and Shadow is a nifty match up. Kir is pretty much useless here. Go and fight that a-hole, Saveli! Take Aether. Poor guy needs to get some action, that is, considering he is not getting "some" from Samarra Inari" added Seraph. "oh you mean the the Cute chick that you let run away? personally she is too snoppy for cute and oh im trialing again" Marekō said as two shurikens made out of darkness appeared in his hands which he threw with great behind him cutting two Shadow orbs behind Seraph. "thank me Later and yes I'd rather fight the being that isn't a bird brain Ughhhh I hate bird brained idiots and thats not just because I'm a phoenix". "Hey bird-y! Guess what? Those two shadow orbs? Yeah, I created them via my magic paper! You just destroyed my plan of attack, thanks!" replied Seraph. "Also, I don't get anything get away!" said Seraph as he hurled his sword in a certain direction resulting him in pinning Melanie against the wall of the room. However, Melanie once again transformed into shadows and escaped after which she emerged behind Marekō. "Stop wasting my time!!" shouted Melanie as her magic power increased two folds; easily dwarfing that of her partner's with relative ease. Several slashing waves of condensed shadows appeared before Marekō and Seraph, taking them by surprise. These slashing waves took the shape of crescent waves. "''The '''Shadow Wave absorbs and condenses my magic power before being released with crushing force. It can even slice through mountains! What good are you two jokers?"'' explained Melanie. Marekō simply on instinct Makes an Iron hard Wall of Darkness to block the Shadow Wave. He just encase this wasn't enough to stop the Shadow Wave he would jump and tackle Seraph out of the way, "Seraph if flood this place with Darkness can i effectively remove all the damn shadows in here?" Marekō asked Seraph as he tackled him. "Yes, Captain Obvious! Do that!" replied Seraph as he sat down on the ground, almost as if he were meditating. Marekō then covered the whole room in a darkness this was a black darkness being unable to see in causing there to be no shadows or anything. "Now find her before i start sending Chains randomly out there into the room which yes i can do" Marekō says calmly. "Do you know what shadows in a dark room smell like? Nothing. Basically, unless she materializes, I can't smell her but what I can do is, hear her--- the sound of her annoying movement in her shadow form--- Its just like gushing water. There! Your 4 O'clock!" exclaimed Seraph as he closed his eyes while trying to focus on the sound of Melanie's movements; with the later traversing in her shadow form. "Don't worry, you should be able to hear her steps soon. Her shadow form is slowly running out" he added. "First I get to fight with the mother and now with her son," Saveli Kir grinned signoring the remarks of Seraph, "Too bad our meeting was such a short one," he said to Seraph. Kir looked towards Aether, "Lets begin," he said instantly teleported towards the direction of the voice and appeared in front of the controller of wind. Knowing that he is now mentally linked with Kir due to the later's telepathy, he mentally communicated with Saveli. "Bad idea. Mr. Marekō just covered the entire field in absolute darkness which means, besides Aether and I, none of you can see anything or sense anything around us, let alone see each other. This darkness saps one of their awareness, be careful. Do not move or give away your location. Make sure to stop where you are, Saveli. A Dragon Slayer isn't to be taken lightly. I'll take care of the girl quickly and then, you can go on about fighting the idiot." "Hmph thanks" Marekō says waiting till Melaine's shadow form to run out. "By the way those chains are strong enough to peirce mountains and Since i have enhanced them by making them come from my Darkness Slayer magic they are strong enough to hold phoenixes" Marekō said outloud right before he sends out a giant wave of Chains in the 4 O'clock direction and having all the chains to explode either on impact with Melanie or on impact of hitting the wall into Darkness. "My turn!" replied Seraph as he gathered a huge amount of fire in his fingers and then released it as a condensed beam of heat and fire striking Melanie with great accuracy and since, she was incapacitated by Marekō's chains, she was hit and was knocked out cold. However, the damage caused by the flaming beam was more than enough to melt most of her clothes to melt, leaving her in her lingerie. The attack also left Melanie with a second degree burn, mostly around her lower torso and abdomen. "Marekō undo the darkness environment thingy. Its' over! Man, I really went overboard with the '''Flaming Fang' spell." '' Marekō then with a clap of huis hands removed all the darkness. "I feel like napping now, Yawn" Marekō says yawning. "Although I heard the wind user just loves the idea of flight i wonder how Aether will deal with that since he can't fly btw did you have to put Her in her lingerie what are you some loli perv or something?". Marekō then rolls over to take a nap. "Ugh... Uh, I didn't put her in anything. I honestly expected her to be wiped dodge. Meh. A win is a win. Just before you nap, can you put her in a darkness cage or something like that? Yeah. She's just knocked out. Anyways, I am pretty much done. Where's the exit? ''" replies Seraph. "''Who's knocked out?" questioned Melanie as she appeared directly behind Seraph. "You little pervert! I am going to wipe you and your lame friend out of existence!" added Melanie as she further increased her power. "This is my power but I have a feeling, it won't be enough to take you two down--- here it comes! 'Shadow Drive... "'' Melanie's magic power along with her physical prowess suddenly increased ten fold causing the entire room to collapse. "At least now, you don't need an exit!" exclaimed Melanie as she out of the blue appeared before Marekō, blasting him point blank with several shadowy spheres as she increased their piercing capability. "'' This is just only the fraction of the true power of '''Shadow Dragon's Scales "'' she said as she increased the number of scales assaulting Marekō. However, before Seraph could come to Marekō's aid, Melanie used Shadow Tendrils to bind Seraph. "Huh?! I thought you were finished...for good?" Marekō tries to dodge but surprisingly gets hit and was sent flying into a wall hard enough to break the wall. Marekō tries to get up and then falls over knocked out after a rock falls on his head; for a good thirty minutes. Marekō snores as soon as he gets knocked out having succeeded in a form of "napping". Using his enhanced senses, Seraph hears Marekō snoring. "That idiot! He is really sleeping? During a fight? I don't know what your problem is lady but we are fighting for the sake of an alliance between our guilds. You get what that means? We are allies and you took our allies from us. You attacked our friends! I don't care if they tricked you into fighting but, I am done sitting around!" declares Seraph as he breaks free of Melanie's tendrils and starts walking towards her. "Friends? Don't give me that crap! Don't talk like you know shit about me! F***ing die!!" shouts Melanie as she was enraged by Seraph's comments and this further increased her strength as she assaulted Seraph with a barrage of attacks. "'' Shadow Dragon's Waxwing Flash --- ", ''" '''Shadow Dragon's Slash' ", ''" '''Shadow Dragon's Blade!!"'. "Begone!!! " she exclaimed as she locks her hands together in a tight fist and swings them down onto Seraph, both smashing them into the ground and creating a destructive circular wave of shadows and prepares to finish him off with a shadow-enhanced kicked. "'' Shadow Dragon's Rif--" '' She tries to complete her spell but surprisingly ends up stopping in mid-air and lands instead. Melanie begins to take a step back as she was instilled with great fear upon noticing that Seraph was indeed unharmed and on his feet, staring at her. "What kind of monster are you?" '' "'' The kind that has enough of this nonsense! You --- little --- ruptured prophylactic sheath! I'm gonna eviscerate you, and use your gastrointestinal tract as a contraceptive while I fornicate﻿ with your skull!"'' screamed Seraph as he finally unleashed his magic power which resulted in such a huge explosion that even Chase, who was several hundreds of meters away was instilled with fear. However, his sentence only caused Melanie to comment, "What the hell does that even mean? No matter! You're dead! '''Dragon Slayer's Secret Art: Shade Klewang!!!' as she rushed towards Seraph released a large burst of shadows from her fist heavily damaging Seraph and pushing him away as she uses the space between her and her opponent to quickly create a massive kelewang composed of shadows. As she hurls it, Seraph replies, "I said, "''You little broken condom! I am going to skull fuck you!!!" "'' as he charges his own breath attack and releases it. "'' Iron Dragon's Roar! "'' Soon the drilling tornado containing metal shards clashed against the shadow kelewang that destroys everything in its path. This clash resulted in a massive explosion. It would appear that Seraph was victorious in the power struggle as Melanie was on her knees, injured more than ever. However, Seraph was far from being calm or happy about his victory as he proceeded to blast a weakened Melanie several times with his Lightning Magic until she eventually passed out owing to her injuries. As a result of being struck by lightning several times, her body was badly damaged and she was on a brink of death but before she could, Seraph finally snapped out of his anger and channeled his magic power into her body which stopped her body from being completely destroyed. "'Kir! I need you to contact someone who can heal people! Right now! Do not mess this up. Get back to me as soon as you can."'' "What have I done? ... I let my anger get the best of me. Maybe, she was just following orders or maybe she was tricked. I had no right to nearly kill her. I failed to reason with her--- the worst part is— I didn't even try. Its' all my fault! I have to fix this, even if she is an enemy. I cannot just go around taking lives... no", Seraph thought to himself as he picked up an unconscious Melanie and waited for Saveli to get back to him. "Look what you have done," Saveli shouted from the distance, "I keep my eyes off you for one second and kaboom we have here man," Saveli spoke sending a level 1 emergency message to the Headquarters. "One down and one more to go," Saveli said looking at the Dragon Slayer who controlled the element of wind. Sky Dragon's Plight Aether began walking up to Chase. "I don't really have a lot of time to fight, so let's make this quick. I still have to reduce Kalina and get your partner some medical attention." Aether's aura flared up, turning a vibrant blue, then shifting to a brilliant violet. "So what's it gonna be? Do I have to knock you out, or will you do the smart thing and surrender?" "Surrender? Don't be stupid, Aether. Yes, I know you. We've been expecting your guild to join in, after all--- you have that stupid alliance with that bitch, right? As for Mel, she failed. She deserves to die. In fact, hand me that pathetic body of hers' I'll finish her off myself!" replied Chase as his own aura flared up; easily matching that of Aether's, thus proving himself to be a worthy opponent. Meanwhile, Samarra Inari better known as Lady Komainu appeared on the battlefield and approached Seraph and the unconscious girl. "You're lucky that I was near. So, why did you feel the need to put her in this state?" she questioned Seraph; the later remained silent as Samarra began healing Melanie with her Healing Magic. Saveli Kir didn't bother being toned down by two big magic aura exerting pressure against each other but tried to maintain his own equally strong but shy aura in between, "You can have body, but first make sure you don't end up like her, ''" "Saveli stand down," said Aether. "I'm about to get angry, and I don't want to hurt my own allies. You're about to learn that insulting Samarra in front of me is the biggest mistake you'll ever make. So don't blame me if you die." Aether became cloaked in an even larger crimson aura. A malefic smile etched onto his face. "With the Organic Link I still can't manifest all the way, but it should be enough to destroy this punk." He flipped off Chase. "You're not dealing with Aether anymore, this is Erebus! And I'm a lot meaner then Aether. Mad Lightning Flame Dragon's Roar!" He blasted a powerful beam of red lightning and flames from his mouth, all of it set to hit Chase. Saveli Kir immediately jumped out of the way, "''Oh you think you could actually touch me? Such arrogance, completely taken after the mother, I see." Kir said watching in amazement as the Dragons Roar went head on towards the Wind Slayer. Chase cockily smiles at the attack coming his way, easily dodging it the fire and lightning spiral through the use of Sky Dragon's Claw, launching himself into the air above it. He takes a deep breath in, and releases a Sky Dragon's Roar from his vantage point, directed at Aether. When he landed back on the ground, he used Sky Dragon's Claw again, propelling himself over to Melanie and Samarra. Using the foot encompassed with wind, he kicks, launching Melanie across the room, and into a wall, leaving it to dent in her wake. "If anyone is going to heal that poor excuse of a warrior, it'll be me!" he growls, his piercing red eyes focused only on Samarra. "Touch her with your disgusting hands again and I will make sure that it's the last thing you ever do," he says, turning away from Lady Komainu, and turning to the Dragon Gunfire leader. "And you, Loverboy, need to check your privilege. Last time I checked, I insult anyone I choose, and you certainly won't stop me from insulting that wretch again. She's nothing but a lowly Council follower who deserves less than the dirt I stand on," his eyes burn with a hatred as he surrounds himself in a sphere of knives. He launches them outwards, and with so many knives, it's impossible to just dodge them. You'll have to defend yourself with magic. But don't forget about little Melanie, lest her body is torn to shreds. A malicious grin spreads across his face at the thought, and he has no qualms in throwing his guildmate into her imminent death. A flash of red went around the whole room. Before they could touch anyone, the knives all melted "I guess Aether's still got some control," said Erebus. He smiled. "You piece of shit. You forget who you're dealing with. I'm sure who've heard the stories of Mini Acnologia, the one who defeated a Dragon in mortal combat. I'm twice as powerful as that side of Aether. In other words: you're f***ed!" Before anyone could react, Erebus was already upon Chase. Using the speed of his magic, he decked Chase in the face with a lighting and fire imbued fist slamming him into the ground, he then began charging up lightning and fire in his foot as he prepared to stomp on Chase's chest. "I exist for one purpose and one purpose alone, to destroy anything that makes me feel mad." Over by Melanie, Samarra finishes tending to the major wounds, but Melanie is still unconscious from her battle. Shouting out to Saveli, Samarra says, "I have healed her wounds enough to where she is not longer on the brink of death. She will probably remain unconscious for a short while longer; but please make sure that Sky Dragon Slayer doesn't touch her again, she might not make it if she gets hit by him." Radioing back to her team through the communication lacrima, she turns back to Saveli. "I can't afford to waste much more energy here, I have to return to my team and find the rest of the test subject. I have faith in all of you, stay strong." Samarra says, and uses her High Speed to get back to her team who is still exploring the compound; leaving Dragon Gunfires team to finish off the other dragon slayer. Chase tsked, shaking his head. "I don't care if you killed all the dragons, they're all useless anyways. Killing a dragon means nothing if you can't even stomp out this pathetic excuse for a guild." Chase speaks in a manner that exudes pride, and he doesn't even bother to try and put up his defenses as Aether speaks of destroying him and it's not like he could've done anything against the speed of his attack anyways. Even as he's knocked to the ground with the force, it takes him only a fraction of a second to get back up on his feet and away from Aether's magic imbued foot as it crashes upon the ground he once was on. "Deus Esques, Physical abilities rise! O swift wind that dashes through the heavens! Vernier!" he shouts, and his magic aura explodes, a glowing aura surrounding him as his offensive capabilities rise. "Man, that actually hurt! Now it's my turn." He speeds towards Aether, forming a thin sword of wind as he passes him by and ends up a few yards away from him as to prevent any close range attacks. Erebus sighed. The attack hadn't phased him in the least. His aura had become more vibrant. It had solidified. "You won't get any hits on me. My Plasma Armor deflects all attacks. And what it can't deflect, it melts. And by the way, why don't you try fighting a f***ing dragon some time!" He got into a sprinting position, putting his hand on the sheath of his sword. "Sanguine Sword!" He sprinted past Chase with the same speed he used to punch him earlier unsheathing the blade, slicing him, and resheathing the blade. He ended the attack several yards away, and a large gust of wind followed, due to his speed. Chase grits his teeth at the new information though keeps his frustration of his face. If I can't hit him, then I what am I supposed to do? He begins to run through ways he could get around the armor Aether has surrounded himself with and comes to a conclusion right as he draws his sword and runs towards him. Predicting just where he will strike, he sidesteps through the use of his Sky Dragon's Claw and then draws in the wind he produced with the swing. "Ah man, thanks for the snack! I must admit, rushing wind tastes a lot better than stale though it's quite metallic from that sword of yours. Please consider other's tastes when you offer food." His cocky grin returns as he uses Sky Dragon's Binding Winds to create a trap to surround the dragon slayer from head to toe. He's careful to avoid the plasma around his opponent as he surrounds him, and the rapid pace of the wind creates a space totally devoid of oxygen. "Sink!" Aether sunk into the ground, using his Earth Magic, but due to the winds, Chase couldn't see him do this. He made a tunnel leading outside the range of the vortex, using his sense of smell to guide him directly underneath Chase. He reached his arms through underneath him, and grabbed his legs, burning his skin with the Plasma Armor. "Dragon Slayer Magic isn't the only Magic I can use you moron." Plants wrapped around his body, restricting his movement. "Ripple!" He sent his magic through the plants, forcibly entering Chase. And the magic of Aether or Erebus entering another's body was not good for them. As he continued to force his magic into him, earth crept up his legs, covering his body. Chase easily figures out that Aether has left the vortex due to his superior sense of smell and hearing, and dispels the wind barrier. He is able to appropriately dodge his attack through the use Sky Dragon's Wings, and he floats ten feet above the ground, looking down at Aether, his tongue sticking out obnoxiously. "I don't care if you know every magic, you can't trick my nose or my ears. And if you're stupid enough to believe I only rely on my sight in a battle, I'd have to think you were an idiot." Chase lands easily on the ground and begins to draw in the air around him into his mouth. He lets out the Sky Dragon's Roar and he aims it directly where Aether pokes out of the ground. He wasn't stupid enough to believe the attack would land but instead used it to draw him out of his hiding spot. "Looks like I've underestimated you a bit. I thought you'd be dead by now. But I guess that if I want you begging for mercy, I'll have to go to 50 percent power." His hair turned red, and a scale-like pattern covered his skin. He had entered Dragon Force. "Lightning Flame Dragon King's Grand Breath!" He blasted out a large quantity of lightning and fire from his mouth, but the attack was ten times larger and more powerful than his previous roar. It easily countered Chase's Sky Dragon's Roar, and with the spell's sheer size, there was no hope of dodging or redirecting it. As Aether releases the breath attack, Chase uses his advanced speed to escape the brunt of it and shouts "Raise!" The fire and lightning that would've hit him is dissolved into nothingness, and Chase laughs out loud. "You're not the only one with magic negating abilities pal! Aren't you suppose to be some high and mighty guild leader from one of the greatest dragon slayer guilds ever made? I can't wait to crush the rest of your underlings' skulls under my feet!" Chase has taken on a manic look, and he begins drawing in the air again. This time, however, he uses it to form a large bubble in the air, and the battlefield begins to slowly be drained of oxygen as it moves into the slightly shifting sphere. It's a subtle change, and the air doesn't appear to be changed at all. Manipulating the wind, he creates a large serpent full of tainted air, and it rears back, before diving straight towards Aether. The air is of a much better quality from his previous attack, and Chase draws in a large breath and gets into a wide stance. "Shattering Light: Sky Drill!" High-velocity winds surround both him and Aether, and cut into the ground, preventing Aether from escaping through tunneling. The wind converges down onto the Fire-Lightning Dragon Slayer and cracks the earth underneath him with the sheer force. When the dust cleared, Erebus was unharmed. "I deactivated my Plasma Armor by the way. At 50 percent that attack's just a breeze." he began walking towards Chase as his aura became larger and more vibrant, even his fellow guild mages began to feel intimidated by his sheer raw power. "Also I know that you're trying to suffocate us all. I can sense any changes in magic within a mile radius. So since you're trying to suffocate me, it only seems right that I suffocate you!" He was so fast it was almost instantaneous. He grabbed Chase by the throat and slammed him into a wall. He began squeezing in order to crush his windpipe. "This works out for me. I kill you, and I get out of this air bubble. It's a win-win." He began to laugh maniacally as Chase began gasping for air. "You insulted me, my guild mates, and the woman I love. I don't care if you were kidnapped or what, if you make Aether bring me out, there's no way in hell you're going to survive!" Meanwhile, someone who had been watching the entire battle sat at an elevated area in the room. He had been there the whole time. "Erebus has great power, but at a price. Can you overcome your insanity Aether,mans prevent yourself from killing this man, or are you too far gone?" Chase doesn't seem at all the surprised by Aether's emergence from the attack nearly unscathed. At his instantaneous attack, Chase utterly eliminates all the air from surrounding area, and through his own magic, even with his windpipe's constricted, he's able to bring in enough air to keep him going for at another hour. He releases a strong burst of wind towards Aether's hands, and a distinct crunch is heard as the bones snap, which causes him to release his grip on him. His magic power increases dramatically as scales appear up his arms, and black feathers sprout from his calves and forearms. He launches towards his opponent faster than he's moved ever before, and uses Sky Dragon's Crushing Fang. The winds burst from his fingertips, which he follows with Sky Dragon's Roar, and his previous attack grows larger and stronger. However Erebus still remained unphased. Knowing that he was out of air to breath, rather than speaking he simply flipped off Chase again. He created a spliff out of plants and began to walk towards Chase. He couldn't say it aloud, but he thought it. "At 60 percent, people see why they call me Mini Acnologia. Lightning Flame Dragon King's Scales." His skin turned into black and red scales, in a pattern reminiscent of Acnologia's. His magical energy had risen far above that of anyone in the room. He took a fighting stance, and beckoned for Chase to attack him. All over the ground, small plants began to appear on the ground, providing those present with air. Chase noticed the plants sprouting from the ground and found it pointless to keep sucking the oxygen away from the air. The intense magical energy coming from Erebus is large enough to send a shiver of fear up Chase's spine, but he does not back down. Instead, he launches towards him with a thin sword of air, and slices it along his side. He figured the attack would do next to nothing if anything at all, but he just wanted to test the waters. He quickly escaped any close range attacks that may come his way through the use of Sky Dragon's Claw. He creates a bow from the air and draws back the quiver, and an arrow forms between his fingers. He launches it though he again doubts it will even land, let alone damage the other male. All the attacks simply bounced off of him, just as Chase had predicted. He sighed, and the red scales transformed to blue. "I'm not angry anymore. You're callous and loud, but now I realize you've been manipulated, twisted around as a victim of circumstance." He walked up to Chase, his Dragon Scales still active, and his aura still just as vibrant. The absolute calm he felt in contrast to earlier shocked Chase enough so that he didn't move. "For now, Erebus is gone, so I'like give you a choice between three options. 1. Be defeated in battle by me, and be sent to prison. 2. Surrender, and be sent to prison. Or 3. Join Dragon Gunfire." He held out his hand to him. Chase's bow dissipates as he's frozen stiff with shock, and he hardly remembers to breathe as Aether comes closer. The magic power he produces is enough to stifle him, and his thoughts run rampant. How can he produce such an aura and still remain so calm? Why isn't he trying to destroy me? The others had no problem rendering Melanie unconscious, and even though she was healed, it simply doesn't make sense. Chase questioningly stares at the offered hand and shakes his head. "I'm not sure how I can even accept anything but the first offer. Why aren't you attacking me now anyways? I've given you every reason to be angry." Chase still doesn't move, and he turns the offer over in his head. "It's not safe for me to join your guild." He thinks aloud, and it's not even because he feels threatened by the guild leader. "If Valentine were to come back for me, what can I even say to refuse any request he makes? He's given me this power, so what right do I have to say where I or it belongs? If you don't send me to prison, there's no guarantee I won't try and destroy the guilds again." There's a distinctive anger in his voice, though over what, not even he is sure. Aether's scales disappeared and his aura died down. "You can forge your own path, and don't allow anyone to tell you what to do. Wether you wish to join my guild or not is always up to you, but remember that the offer is always on the table. Even if you're in prison, just send me a message, and believe me when I say, I can get you out." He patted Chase on the head. "You are strong physically, but it is emotional strength that you lack. If you're able to gain that, you'll be able to surmount any obstacle." Chase relaxes considerably as the aura around Aether disappears, and he mulls over the information he's just been given. Forge my own path? If only I had the ability to. Chase accepts the small pat on his head and then raises his head to look Aether head on. "I will join your guild, if only you promise to teach me how to gain control over my emotions. If you can promise me that, I will do whatever you ask." Chase keeps his gaze steady on the other male's, and he feels no fear as he does so. If he truly wants me to join him, I need to know I can be treated as an equal. Can I truly be treated as so? Aether smiled. "Of course, I'll help you, but mastery over your emotions is something that does not require complete guidance. With or without my help I know someday you'll master them." He turned towards his guild members, and his face immediately became more serious. "We need to get going. Our mission here isn't done yet. Seraph, you should take the girl to receive further medical treatment. Let's move." Along with his guild members, Aether ran out of the room. Still in his perch, the man from earlier continued to watch. "I see you managed to overcome your rage, and in the process add a new member to your ranks. I'm very proud of you my son." A door opened on the wall he was leaning against and he walked through. The door closed behind him, and it disappeared. Aftermath Seraph remained silent throughout the entire fight, choosing to focus on an unconscious Melanie as he covered her in his jacket. As she began to gain her consciousness, Seraph looked at Aether. "What about this one? Sure, I can accept a psychotic murdering ghost of a Dragon Slayer as my guildmate but what are we supposed to do with her? I am not handing over a human being to the Magic Council. No one should become a human pincushion. What will it be, Aether?" "She can come with us as well," answered Aether, "but when she wakes up, whether or not she wishes to join us is entirely up her. Now do as I said, she'll need help." "Uhuh!" replied Seraph as he carried Melanie while Melanie stared at him as she was being carried. "Why would you do this for someone insignificant as me?" she questioned. "Insignificant? You're a human being. Your life is worth something, dammit! Tell me something, were you really at home when you joined Shattered Dusk?" answered Seraph. "Home? I grew up on streets. It was kind of them to accept someone like me---" "Don't---" "Why show me such kindness? I am your guild's enemy..." "You were just following orders, weren't you? You felt obliged to follow the orders without question because you thought they rescued you... Am I right?" "Something like that" "How would you like to make some real friends?" "Friends?" "I am sorry about your clothes though and my behavior earlier..." "No, its oka-- if you're sorry about my clothes then stop looking!" replied Melanie as she playfully slapped Seraph. The duo then smiled at each other as they walked off into the sunset with Seraph carrying Melanie as they continued on their journey to reach Shojiro's Family Hospital. All this while Saveli Kir stayed distances away from his guildmates, wishing them luck, he had a new adventure in his pile of adventures and there was a new one awaiting him. Sending a "congratulations" message to Miriam over his Archive network he wandered of to the east. Marekō wakes up yawning and sees that the battle is over. He comments "Hmm this guild is quite interesting i think I'll stay with a lot longer and I'll have to think that old man whenever I see him Again and it accepts all kinds of People hmph and i Guess I'll have to work out a healing spell for my Phoenix Magic that activates on me getting knocked out oh well." Marekō then gets up and walks away from the Battlefield. Category:Roleplay